Recent "exchanges" between North Korea's "Supreme Leader" Kim Jong-un and our own In-House Psycho Donny John Trump have brought Guam back into the national consciousness. But here's another recent story about Guam that probably didn't "break thru" to most Americans.
Ho hum, just another chapter in the long-running horror story known as religion.
Victims' advocates say Guam priest sex abuse lawsuits could top 200
HAGATNA, Guam — The world’s largest network of priest abuse survivors says Guam’s clergy sex abuse cases could reach into the hundreds over the next couple of years, from 46 at present.
Guam children were allegedly abused by Catholic clergy between 1956 and 1988, based on lawsuits filed in local and federal courts between Nov. 1, 2016 and April 6, 2017.
“I would not be surprised if you saw 150 to 200 cases over the next couple of years,” said Joelle Casteix, volunteer western regional director for the St. Louis-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. Casteix said her estimate may seem high but Guam children faced a very influential Catholic leadership.
Based on lawsuits, former altar boys said their parents and other adults they knew, were devout Catholics who did not believe them when they tried to tell them about a priest abuse. Others did not attempt to tell adults at all, out of fear they won’t be believed, lawsuits say. The current plaintiffs -- 45 men and one woman -- are now 37 to 73 years old.
“This scandal has rocked the entire Catholic faithful on Guam, to the point where confidence and trust in our clergy is zero,” said David Sablan, president of the grassroots movement Concerned Catholics of Guam.
Casteix said two other factors have not yet been fully explored: the issue of military chaplains, and finding much younger victims who were abused in the 1990s and 2000s, now that the statute of limitations on childhood sexual abuse has been completely removed.
“Abuse did not stop in the 1980s,” Casteix said. “The reason that you are not hearing from younger victims is that many are not ready to come forward. Others are not healed enough. Others are struggling with addiction. Many have young children and families.”
Casteix, who has been working in child sex abuse prevention for almost 15 years, said the children of Guam faced the same problems that Native Alaska children faced: strong, centralized, very influential Catholic leadership, and children with nowhere to escape
“Eskimo kids were trapped in Alaska villages with no way out, just like Guam’s children were trapped on the island. And for generations, they were sexually abused,” Casteix said.
“They are the only two places I have worked where child sexual abuse was the biggest unspoken ‘elephant in the room’, so to speak. Everywhere else I have worked — California, Delaware, New York, Florida, Washington, almost every state in the union, Native American reservations, even Europe, the abuse was shocking to parents and the community,” Casteix said.
On Guam and Alaska, everyone was just waiting for the first victim to come forward publicly, she said. “Then the floodgates opened,” she added. When men started publicly accusing Archbishop Anthony S. Apuron of raping or sexually abusing them in the 1970s in Agat, the Legislature introduced a bill lifting the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse.
The bill became law on Sept. 23, 2016. Across America, states have been considering expanding or eliminating statutes of limitations on rape and child sex abuse because of high-profile sex abuse allegations.
Guam's population is about 85 percent Catholic.
much more at link. It's such a damn shame that "missionaries" were sent the world over to "civilize" the natives, while in so many ways the natives were more "civilized" than the missionaries. A tragic history.
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